A home healthcare system is necessary for a patient requiring substantial healthcare once the patient is discharged from a hospital. Home healthcare systems include numerous pieces of medical equipment (durable medical equipment examples—heart monitors, pulse oximeter, aspirator, feeding pumps, nebulizers, ventilators etc. large amounts of medical supplies examples (syringes, suction catheters, respiratory supplies, bandages, trachs, tongue blades etc). patients requiring the need to store and secure wide assortment of medical prescription drugs.
When a medically fragile patient is released from the hospital they usually do so with the understanding that they are not cured of their illness or they haven't fully recovered from their injuries, but are stable enough to be cared for in a home environment. These people are still patients and in many cases they require the same medical equipment, supplies and treatment that they where receiving in the hospital. In many cases, family members are sent home with little or no medical training to care for loved ones. To ease the transition from the hospital to home, a patients' doctor may order that they receive a certain number of nursing hours at home. These hours are to be provided by a licensed home health nursing agency or licensed RN or LVN. Upon the patients' arrival home, the medical supply company sends a RN to the home to teach the patient and their family members how to operate and use the medical equipment and supplies. This is where the problem begins.
Over the years, advances in medical treatment, equipment technology and devices have allowed patients that only a few decades ago would have died in the hospital, can now be cared for in a home setting. While families and patients are thankful for these advances, the problem is the home is not a hospital. Many medically fragile patients are sent home with three, four, five and sometimes more pieces of medical equipment, which must be placed within close proximity of the patient. In every single case this scenario poses a problem for which there is currently no solution.
Human factors are a discipline that focuses on those variables that affect the performance of individuals using equipment. Errors in the use of medical devices are often caused, at least in part, by the design of the user interface, i.e., those features which healthcare practitioners and patients or family members interact. Mistakes made during device operation not only can hamper effective patient treatment, monitoring, or diagnosis but also in some cases can lead to injury or death. The factors that immediately come into play include patient, nurse and caregiver safety, the ability to reach and accurately set the controls of equipment in a safe and timely manner, the ability to read visual displays and monitors, and the ability to hear the audio alarms of the equipment being used. Power outages, accidental unplugging of equipment (in some cases this equipment is mission critical i.e. ventilators), insufficient outlets, the equipments own electrical cord and in many cases extension cords reaching from across the room creating certain trip hazards further compound problems.
Another problem caused by the use of medical equipment in patient care is the leads (wiring) and tubing connecting the equipment to the patient. Again, this scenario poses a problem for which there is currently no solution. Here is one example. In a home health setting, more often than not, electrical cords from the medical equipment become entangled with the O2, suction, feeding tubing and leads (wiring) that are connected to the patient. This poses several problems of immediate concern.                1. Many times quick reaction to a patients needs are of critical importance. It is not helpful in that critical moment to have to decipher which is an electrical cord and which is a lead or tubing. In fact tubing can become so tangled it is often hard to distinguish which tube is O2, the nebulizer tubing, or the suction tubing.        2. Nurses or caregivers while administering care or by the patient's movement i.e. shifting positions in bed or getting out of bed often pulls medical equipment off shelving or tables. Often, falling equipment breaks or disconnects the leads and pulls tubing out or away from the patient rendering it ineffective.        3. Because there is no effective way of storing suction, I.V., feeding, breathing tubing and monitoring leads while not in use, they sometimes fall to the floor rendering them not sterile and they must be prematurely cleaned or replaced. Not only is this a safety issue but also it is a waste of time and money.        4. In many home health scenarios, lack of space and electrical outlets are pressing issues; therefore equipment must be placed on both sides of the bed. This causes several problems that must be addressed. First, when equipment is on both sides of the bed, it becomes very difficult to move the patient. Tubing and leads are only so long and any movement to one side of the bed or the other usually pulls equipment on the other side of the bed off the table. Secondly, it's very hard to visually monitor and reach equipment controls, which are prescribed to be used as a unit, when some equipment is on the other side of the bed from which you are working.        5. Tubing and wiring can often become kinked or twisted restricting oxygen flow or causing electrical interference.The fact that these patients have so many pieces of medical equipment reduces patient mobility and usually means that the patient is confined to a single room. As a result of this confinement, the patient is denied the opportunity to interact with the rest of the family. Patient interaction with the rest of the family is well documented in medical journals as a factor in overall patient comfort and speed of recovery.        
In addition, families with small children often battle to keep the children from playing with the medical equipment. The equipment is sometimes turned off and settings are often compromised without the knowledge of the parent. Furthermore, most of these patients have many prescription medications and families are often forced to hide medication to keep it out of reach of the children.
Medically fragile patients require a huge amount of medical supplies and because the baseline (normal state of health) of medically fragile patients can go for stable to critical in a matter of minutes, having supplies within close reach is extremely important. The following scenario is one where policy and procedure mandate that these supplies be close to the patient. When a patient has a tracheotomy it is mandated that a replacement trach of the same size and one the next size smaller be placed next to the patient. An example would be a Shiley Ped 4.0 and a Shiley Ped 3.5. This is usually accomplished by taping the trachs either to the bed or the wall. The problem with this practice is that on some occasions the tape doesn't hold and the trachs end up falling on the floor or behind the bed making a quick trach replacement impossible. At times a patients' trach may become plugged by mucus secretion and may require immediate removal and replacement. The process of changing a trach in a timely manner requires that a suction machine, O2 supply, pulse oximeter and medical supplies, such as, sterile gloves, lubricating jelly, trach ties, sterile gauze or wipes and suction catheters, all be within easy reach of the nurse or caregiver. In a home health setting this is usually easier said than done.
It is a well-known fact that in order to care for medically fragile patients, very strict policies and procedures mandate the physician's orders be followed very closely. Medication, therapy schedules and physician ordered medical equipment and medical supplies all must work in unison in order for a nurse or caregiver to provide the patient with the highest level of recovery, comfort and independence.
There remains a need for a method and system that can provide for more efficient arrangement of medical equipment when providing health care so that the care giver can more easily and efficiently access the medical equipment and provide the necessary care to the patient.